1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a hockey puck, and in particular to a puck for playing hockey on, for example, a non-ice surface.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ice hockey is played on ice in an ice rink or on the frozen surface of a pond, lake or river using a puck. The puck is flat cylinder of hard rubber, and due to the slipperiness of the ice it slides easily across the surface of the ice. The puck tends to stay flat, resting on one of its flat surfaces, as it is moved across the ice by the players using hockey sticks, again due to the slipperiness of the ice.
An increasingly popular sport is floor hockey or street hockey, which is played much the same as ice hockey except that is its played on a floor, street, parking lot, tennis court, or other dry surface. The players thus do not wear ice skates during play but may wear athletic shoes, roller skates or in-line skates, and the play is not limited to cold weather when played outdoors or on an expensive ice rink when played indoors.
Floor hockey or street hockey uses either a puck or a ball as the puck in a way comparable to ice hockey. A variety of pucks have been proposed to simulate the playing characteristics of the hard rubber ice hockey puck on ice. For instance, soft rubber pucks are known. These are either solid or hollow and are best suited for children and less experienced players, since the soft rubber tends to grip the playing surface rather than slide across it. Hard rubber pucks are also known. A type of hard rubber puck on the market has round pegs projecting in an arrangement on the flat surfaces to enhance sliding of the puck on the playing surface.
All of the known pucks for non-ice surface play have disadvantages in simulating the action of a puck on ice. The pucks do not slide well, which causes them to move slower and for less distance. This is particularly true when the puck is used on a type of playing surface referred to as sport court, which has a 15 to 20 percent rubber content. The pucks have a greater tendency to bounce and to tip up on edge and roll across the floor out of control than when played on ice. This is very disruptive for the players since the rolling puck travels much farther and faster than a sliding puck so that it may have to be chased. Further, the rolling puck often veers off in different directions, usually on a curved path, as it rolls instead of sliding along a generally straight line. Accurate passing and shooting of the puck is thereby difficult to accomplish.